The present invention relates to electronic price label (EPL) systems, and more specifically to an electronic price label (EPL) price verification system and method.
In a traditional retail store, bar code scanners rely on price information maintained within a price-lookup (PLU) file. The PLU file is typically stored in a single location at host server.
EPL systems typically include a plurality of EPLs for each merchandise item in a store. EPLs display the price of corresponding merchandise items on store shelves and are typically attached to a rail along the leading edge of the shelves. A store may contain thousands of EPLs to display the prices of the merchandise items. The EPLs are coupled to a central server from where information about the EPLs is typically maintained in an EPL data file. The EPL data file contains EPL identification information, EPL merchandise item information, and price verifier information, such as, a checksum value. Price information displayed by the EPLs is obtained from the PLU file.
Price mismatch can occur in EPLs if the price in the PLU data file has a checksum value that is different than the checksum value in the EPL data file. One situation that can produce price mismatch between the PLU data file and the EPL data file is when either the PLU data file or the EPL data file is lost due to a failure in a storage medium containing the lost file.
The typical method of recovering from such a price mismatch situation is to create and execute price change requests for every EPL in the store. Such price change requests can take hours to accomplish. In stores having thousands of EPLs, this method is inefficient because it changes the prices of EPLs that do not suffer from price mismatch.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an EPL price verification system and method which can ensure that the price information in the PLU file is the same price information that is displayed by the EPLS, and which obviates the need to change the prices of all EPLs when price mismatch occurs in less than all of the EPLs.